With much of the world still on pause, and me itching to get back to exploring Ohio, I’ve decided to spend a little more time in places where it’s easy to keep 6 feet of distance. That’s right, it’s time for more cemetery exploring!
Green Lawn Cemetery was founded in 1848, and the first official burials started there in 1849. At the time, it was over 2 miles away from Columbus. Today, it’s surrounded by neighborhoods, highways, and a former baseball stadium.
Green Lawn Cemetery has nearly 30 miles of pathways and is Ohio’s second largest cemetery, behind only Spring Grove in Cincinnati. There are over 154,000 people buried there.
Before we enter the gate, however, let’s stop off at Greenlawn Abbey.
Greenlawn Abbey is a mausoleum that sits outside the gates of the main cemetery, although the two places are not related. It is the final resting place for H.R. Penney (brother to J.C.) and Howard Thurston, probably the most popular magician of his era. He was known for his elaborate stage presentation…needing 8 train cars to transport his show from town to town. He was also renowned for perfecting the “rising card” illusion.
As is the case with magicians – stories exist that Thurston’s ghost haunts the halls of the Abbey. Also, rumors persist that he is actually just waiting for the right time to perform his most incredible trick – to come back to life.
Unfortunately, the Abbey is not open for exploration at this time. The Abbey has been a longtime sufferer at the hands of Mother Nature, neglect, and bored teenagers. Efforts are underway to fix the damage done to this beautiful building. It is usually opened a couple of times during the year for special occasions.
Let’s head into Green Lawn proper and spend some time learning about the people in the neighborhood.
Max & Erma Visocnik
Max & Erma’s is a Columbus-based casual dining location. For many years it was known for gigantic portions while keeping prices very low. They were also known for their chaotically kitschy decor. Max and Erma Visocnik did not start the restaurant, however. They owned a bar in the German Village neighborhood from 1958 until 1972 when Todd Barnum and Barry Zacks purchased the bar. They opened a restaurant and named it after the couple.
At it’s peak, Max & Erma’s had over 50 restaurants in their chain. Today, that number sits at 21. The original location in German Village closed down in 2017.
Cromwell Dixon
Cromwell Dixon we dubbed the World’s Youngest Aviator in 1907 when he won first prize at the International Balloon Race in St. Louis for his invention “The Sky-Cycle”.
In 1911, he got his aircraft pilot’s license… License #43. For the next couple months, he traveled the country doing stunt flight shows for thousands upon thousands of people. On September 30, 1911 Dixon completed the feat he is best known for: he became the first person to cross the Continental Divide in a plane. For that feat, he won a $10,000 prize (roughly $250,000 today). Two days later, while flying at a fair in Spokane, Washington, Dixon’s plane experienced engine trouble. A strong gust of wind sent his plane plummeting 100 feet into the ground. Dixon was found alive, but he died an hour later. It is said that onlookers at the show could hear Dixon yell “Here we go!” as he crashed into the ground. Dixon’s uncle’s response to the accident? “Just as I expected.”
Jamas Howard Snook
I love a good, dark story. It doesn’t get much darker than the story of James Howard Snook.
Snook’s story starts out innocently enough. In 1920, he won a Gold Medal as a part of the Team Military Pistol event. Back in Columbus, he was a very successful veterinarian. He was the head of the department for Veterinary Medicine at THE Ohio State University. He invented the “snook hook” which is still used in the process of spaying animals. He was also a founding member of Alpha Psi – a Veterinary fraternity.
However, the story takes a very dark turn in 1929, Snook was convicted of murdering Theora Hix.
Hix was a former student of Snook’s… one he had been having an affair with for three years. During his three-week long trial, Snook went on the stand and apparently gave testimony about the affair that was so detailed and graphic that no newspaper would print it. Snook claimed that he was worried Hix was about to expose the affair to his wife, and that’s why he killed her.
The jury deliberated all of 28 minutes. He was found guilty, and was executed by electrocution on February 28, 1930. He was originally buried in an unmarked grave. Some time later, a headstone was placed there, but without his last name in an effort to try and curb vandalism. I found a document online (I’m assuming a list officially made by Green Lawn at some point) listing notable burials that had the location of Snook’s grave scribbled out with a note: “Do Not Give Location”. For better or worse, that location is now known, and available for true crime fans to visit.
Hix is buried in New York, near where she grew up.
On a lighter note… very near Snook’s grave is this unfortunate (?) pairing of names. Yes, I’m still a child.
Stanislaus Roy
Scattered around Green Lawn’s 360 acres are six different sites for military burials. The largest are near the gate to the right as you enter, but the one that brings us our next story, and maybe my favorite story is this small yard near the back center of the cemetery. Many of the graves in this area date back to the Spanish-American and American Indian Wars. The one I want to focus on is the bright and shiny, almost brand new headstone of Stanislaus Roy.
Roy was a member of the 7th US Cavalry Unit. If that doesn’t mean anything to you, perhaps the name of it’s leader does: Ohio’s very own George Armstrong Custer.
Roy was a Sergeant in Custer’s doomed company. During the Battle at Little Big Horn, Roy was recognized for bravery for crossing enemy lines in order to get water to help care for wounded troops.
Roy survived the battle, and died in 1913 at the age of 66. That’s when the silliness begins. When Roy was buried at Green Lawn, there was one slight problem. Well, two actually. First, Roy’s name was backwards on the headstone (likely a clerical error when copying his name from official records). Second, his name “Stanislaus” was spelled sans-“U”. Then, as happens with many people, he kind of got forgotten about…for nearly 90 years.
A researcher in the 1980s discovered the error and notified the correct authorities. The headstone was removed and replaced with a new one. This one had the name in the right order, but the name was still spelled wrong. It stayed that way for roughly another 30 years.
Then in 2017, local news reporter Anietra Hamper, in researching her wonderful book “Secret Columbus” found that the headstone had been removed. Was it getting fixed? Nope. They had fancied it up with gold leaf and cleaned it…but the name was still wrong.
I don’t know when the current headstone was placed there, but based on all this, it’s probably been about 2 years at most.
Eddie Rickenbacker
With someone like Eddie Rickenbacker, it’s hard to know where to start when it comes to trying to recount major life events in just a few lines for a post like this.
During World War I Rickenbacker had the most aerial victories of any pilot with 26. He received the most awards for valor by an American in the war including 7 Distinguished Service Crosses…he had originally gotten 8, but one of those was upgraded to a Medal of Honor.
Before the war, Rickenbacker raced in the very first Indianapolis 500. After the war he bought the track! He was enshrined in the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Hall of Fame in 1954.
He also helped found Eastern Air Lines, started his own car company…introducing 4-wheel brakes to consumer automobiles, survived an airplane crash outside Atlanta, wrote comic strip scripts, and survived 24 days in a life raft after the plane he was flying in had to be ditched… any one of those could be its own movie.
James Thurber
James Thurber was a man of many talents. He was probably best known for cartooning, comedy and writing. At the age of 7, Thurber lost an eye in a game of “William Tell” that went wrong. Because of this injury, he was unable to graduate from THE Ohio State University. He spent a couple years writing reviews for the Columbus Dispatch and later the Chicago Tribune.
In 1925, Thurber moved to New York City to further his career, with help from his friend E.B. “Charlotte’s Web” White, Thurber landed a job at The New Yorker. In 1930, Thurber began drawing cartoons for the New Yorker…he held that position into the 1950s.
Thurber’s cartoons were known for their simplistic style. His cartoons of dogs were his most popular.
Unfortunately, the eye injury he sustained at the age of 7 eventually caused him to go completely blind, so he had to stop drawing the cartoons. He kept writing, however. Probably his most famous story is “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty” which has been made into a movie twice.
Several members of Thurber’s family are buried in the same area, under a wonderful tree.
Emil Ambos
Ambos’ grave is one of the grandest in Green Lawn, just feet from James Thurber’s.
An avid outdoorsman, Ambos had it in his will that he was to have this statue of himself made. He also willed his land to the city as long as they turned it into Ambos Park, but when confusion erupted in City Council, they used a medium to try and talk to Ambos’ spirit. During the seance, it is said Ambos called some of the council members “short skates”. They were so insulted that they rejected his gift. The land was turned into a golf course and skating ponds. The land is mostly empty today.
After he retired at the ripe old age of 39, Ambos lived in a grand house that sat in downtown right where Lazarus’ flagship store was located. Speaking of Lazarus…
Lazarus Family
Lazarus was a long-time and beloved department store that had its flagship store right in the center of downtown. It had much more humble beginnings. Lazarus began in a 1-room building on High Street, founded by Simon “Best Sideburns Ever” Lazarus in 1851.
Lazarus struggled at first, but became a force during the Civil War as they perfected the process for mass making garments by making uniforms for Union troops.
Is was Simon’s sons Fred Sr, (the main “resident” of the fancy crypt) and Richard that really brought Lazarus to national prominence. They were two of the founding members of Federated Department Stores which was that parent company for such stores as Bloomingdale’s and Macy’s.
Lazarus also had the first air conditioned store in the country, the first in-store elevators, and Fred Jr. is the man that convinced Franklin Roosevelt to set the 4th Thursday in November as the date for Thanksgiving.
Unfortunately for the Lazarus name, changing factors in the retail landscape led to Macy’s Inc. (the renamed Federated) to retire the Lazarus nameplate in 2005.
Just across the an almost overgrown driveway from the Lazarus plot is a fascinating circular military section. The soldiers buried here are from the Civil War. Sadly, a number of them are listed as “Unknown”.
Thomas Blakiston
Thomas Blakiston spent much of his life exploring the wilds of Western Canada, China, and Japan. While in Japan, Blakiston noted that species of the same animals found on the two largest islands came from two different parts of Asia and did not cross a specific line. The animals found on Hokkaido were tied to Northern Asia, those found on Honshu were tied to Southern Asia.
Researchers surmise that land bridges may have existed at one point to connect the islands to the mainland. The line that divides the species is called the Blakiston Line, and is located in the Tsugaru Strait the waterway that divides the two islands of Japan.
At first I couldn’t figure out why Blakiston was buried in Ohio, as he was born in England and died in San Diego. It turns out his wife’s family had a large burial plot in Green Lawn, and let Blakiston have a place there.
Random fun fact: the drummer of twenty-one pilots is related to Blakiston’s wife.
James A. Rhodes and Lesley LeVeque
These two names are synonymous with the Columbus skyline, as they are the names on the two tallest building in town. Unfortunately, they are both housed inside the Huntington Chapel mausoleum, which is not open for visitation. It’s unknown if this is the normal case, or just COVID precautions.
James A. Rhodes was a four-time Governor of Ohio. It’s pretty much impossible to bring up his name without bringing up May of 1970. On May 3, Rhodes sent National Guard troops to Kent State after the towns mayor asked for help to try and calm protests (hmmm…) against the Vietnam War. On May 4, the National Guard troops fired on protesters, killing 4 students and injuring nine others. At least 2 of the dead were not involved in the protests.
Rhodes was also an author of historical fiction. His story Johnny Shiloh: A Novel of the Civil War was turned into a TV move by Walt Disney in 1963.
Lesley LeVeque was a Columbus real estate investor. He had nothing to do with the construction of the tower that bears his name today.
Opened in 1927 as the American Insurance Union Citadel, the tower stood 555 feet and 5 inches tall – making it exactly 5 inches taller than the Washington Monument. Almost immediately upon opening, the tower ran into financial trouble. It was $800,000 over budget, and AIU was having trouble finding companies to rent office space.
AIU went bankrupt during the Great Depression. Eventually, in 1945- LeVeque and John Lincoln purchased the building, naming it LeVeque – Lincoln Tower. In 1977, LeVeque’s daughter became sole owner of the building, and excised Lincoln from the name. It’s often stated that the LeVeque Tower was an inspiration for the design of the Empire State Building.
George Blount
George Blount’s father ran the American House motel back in the 1870’s. The American House was a large brick building that sat along High Street right where the Riffe Tower is today.
George enjoyed leaning over the railing and watching the hustle and bustle of people arriving and departing. Sadly, the railing gave way and George fell down to the first floor, hitting his head on the iron stove on the way. George died 9 days later. A very similar accident befell young George the year before as well.
Over the years, people have brought toys and outfitted George’s nearly life-size statue with clothes befitting the season. In recent years in an attempt to keep the statue from getting damaged, the cemetery has asked visitors to stop dressing the statue, and instead bring those items to the office for donation purposes.
Lucas Sullivant
Lucas Sullivant worked for the Commonwealth of Virginia surveying the midwest. His group of 21 men were given 6000 acres of land as payment. Sullivant named the area Franklinton in honor of Ben Franklin, who had recently died.
Unfortunately for Franklinton, it was built at the confluence of the Olentangy and Scioto Rivers, which made it prone to disastrous flooding. In fact, Sullivant’s original gravesite in the Old Franklinton Cemetery flooded a few times. Eventually his remains were moved to a lovely hilltop location inside Green Lawn.
Louisiana Briggs
Louisiana grew up on a plantation in Missouri. During the Civil War, Union forces came and captured her father’s plantation. Louisiana was sent to Ohio to live with other members of her family. To put it succinctly, she didn’t like the North. She refused to sit next to “Yankee” kids in class, and was “disgusted” that girls were doing such things as washing dishes and clothes for themselves. When she left Missouri, it is said she didn’t know how to comb her own hair.
After the War, Briggs remained a staunch defender of the Southern cause. On the Westside of Columbus is Camp Chase (I have been there, I just forgot to write about it, this will be rectified soon). Camp Chase is a cemetery for over 2,000 Confederate soldiers that died in the prison camp there during the Civil War. Briggs, afraid of anyone finding out her identity, would go out to Camp Chase dressed in all grey, wearing a long veil to hide her face. At first, she would throw flowers over the wall and then run away quickly. Later on she became more emboldened, and would slowly walk among the graves placing flowers from time to time.
Briggs lived to be 100 years old. She died when her neice smuggled some whiskey into her hospital room at Mount Carmel Hospital, and she choked on it.
It is said that the “Veiled Lady” still haunts the graveyard.
Speaking of Mount Carmel Hospital…
Dr. William Ballard Hawkes
Hawkes started the Hawkes Hospital on Mt. Carmel in 1885. This elaborate headstone was made for Hawkes’ wife Emma who passed away at the age of 49. The pillar has carvings of both Emma and W.B. (as he seemingly preferred to be called).
Merie Earle
Merie Earls was an actress that found her calling reasonably late in life. She started her career in the 1960’s as the second “Little Old Lady From Pasadena” in a series of Dodge car commercials (after the first one died). She then had a run of bit parts as various forms of “Old Lady” in dozens of shows in the 1970’s. Her biggest role was as Maude Gormley on The Waltons.
At the age of 88, she was going to make her debut on Broadway until an unfortunate fall caused her to break her hip. She died at the age of 95 from complications after surgery for colon cancer.
Samuel Prescott Bush
Samuel Prescott Bush was the General Manager of Buckeye Steel, a company run by Frank Rockefeller… John’s brother. In 1908 Bush became President of the company, a position he held until 1927.
In 1989, his grandson George Herbert Walker “I Don’t Like Broccoli” Bush became President of the United States. In 2001 his great-grandson George “Dubya” Bush became President. In 2016, his great-grandson Jeb “Jeb!” Bush asked an audience to “Please clap.”
Buckeye Steel went bankrupt in 2002. Columbus Steel Castings opened in the same location in an attempt to rebuild the legacy of Buckeye Steel. They went bankrupt in 2016. You can still see remnants of the once mighty steel mill on High Street, just north of the 104 split.
Dr Benjamin Gard
We wrap up our tour of just some of Green Lawn’s notable residents with a name that ties into another recent post.
Dr. Gard is one of the doctors that traveled up to Sandusky, Ohio, and helped quell the devastating Cholera outbreak. Sadly, Dr. Gard became a victim of the outbreak himself.
Gard’s marker here in Green Lawn is the oldest extant memorial in the cemetery. He was either the second or third burial, and the first adult entombed at Green Lawn. His memorial has been extensively renovated in recent years. Based on images I’ve found online, it used to be all but invisible behind a scraggly tree or covered in moss. Today it’s a shiny monument in the middle of a large clearing.
That brings me to the last thing I want to bring up about Green Lawn. In doing a lot of reading for this post, I read a lot of posts about how Green Lawn was in disrepair and was itself dying a slow death. After visiting a few times in the past few weeks and months, I can say that I see things turning around. You can see it in some of these pictures, repairs are being made. Steps are being taken to keep damage from getting worse.
It’s an uphill fight sometimes. A couple years ago, there was a rash of vandalism done at night. The cemetery, once over 2 miles away from the city, is now in the middle of an urban center.
Then, just a couple months ago, a storm sewer system broke, flooding a large portion of the graveyard that borders Brown Road. It’s a shame because there’s a lot of Columbus’ history here. Along with many beautiful memorials.
And that’s just scratching the surface!
Thanks so much for reading. As I finish this post, museums are said to be reopening in a couple weeks… I don’t know if I’m going to run back to them immediately, but at least the option will be there.
Travel 88 
One thought on “Green Lawn Cemetery – Columbus”